Subject: [xsl] Expand XPath with a few abstractions and use it as a standalone language ... run expanded-XPath through a preprocessor to generate equivalent XSLT/XPath From: "Roger L Costello costello@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2022 11:12:04 -0000 |
Hi Folks, Recently I was reading about Ratfor (Rational Fortran). Ratfor is a layer on top of Fortran. Fortran does not provide nice control structures such as the while-loop. Instead, you have to use labels and gotos. The resulting (spaghetti-like) program imposes a large cognitive load on the developer and maintainer. Writing Fortran programs is unreasonably difficult and error prone. So some clever fellow created Ratfor, which provides abstractions such as the while loop. The abstractions make it much easier to write and maintain programs. A preprocessor converts the Ratfor into equivalent Fortran. For example, the preprocessor converts the while-loop into equivalent labels and gotos. I really like XSLT. In my experience, however, the verbosity of its XML syntax imposes a substantial cognitive load on the developer and maintainer. This makes implementing large and/or complex programs unreasonably difficult and error prone. In my opinion, XPath, with its concise notation would be a superior language for programming large and/or complex programs. If XPath were enhanced with a few things, such as apply-templates (as was discussed a couple weeks ago), it would make for a programming language that is easier to write and maintain programs. In the spirit of Ratfor, it seems that it should be possible to write a preprocessor that converts "expanded-XPath" into equivalent XSLT/XPath. Has anyone done this -- created an expanded-XPath and a preprocessor which converts expanded-XPath into equivalent XSLT/XPath? /Roger
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